1st of April feels like ages ago now, but it was less than 2 weeks ago that we all came together at
The Shoreham Centre for the Fiesta Fundraising event.
The aim of the day was to raise much needed funding for 2 amazing local charities that operate to support children and young adults with learning disabilities and some with physical ones too..
Extratime, located in Portslade, I have been going to once a month to do Zumba Gold sessions with.
I cannot tell you how much fun these young people have once the music is on and the dancing starts.
Extratime was founded in 2003 by two parents of severely disabled children in response to an issue affecting parent carers like them – a lack of suitable, affordable, childcare for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Brighton & Hove. Since then, Extratime has become a lifeline for hundreds of families of children and young people with SEND and is now one of the largest specialist providers of inclusive play and leisure in Sussex.
Spiral Sussex has been supporting adults with learning disabilities since 1999
Spiral was originally established in February 2000 to help provide recreational and social activities for people with learning disabilities in Brighton and Hove. They found that most provisions for their would-be clients were to be found in family or care home settings, or day-care centres, and there were little opportunities for them to take a greater participation in the life of the community. Spiral Sussex exists to support and facilitate adults with learning disabilities, working to improve their quality of through activities, skill development and inclusion. They provide holidays, out of hours clubs and a space for creative expression at their media based day centre.
SO! This is where the money has gone to.
You guys raised a very impressive £1250.00 through the ticket sales and the cake stand.
After deducting the cost of the hall hire, lighting and some small sundries like printing and advertising, the amount sent to each charity was £560.00 - so a final total of £1120.00
Here's some photos from the day!
This was my favourite fundraiser so far.
There was such a great, eclectic mix of music and dance styles. The prefect way to introduce people to some new sounds and genres that perhaps they are not familiar with.
I was super impressed at the number of people that managed to do the whole 2 hours!
But that wasn't the intention, really it was a chance for anyone of any ability to have an opportunity to dip in and out of the afternoon. Whatever you managed, as long as you had fun, that was the
objective.
On a personal level, I love bringing people together to share an experience and create something fun and memorable.
It was lovely to share the stage with so many talented dance fitness instructors, all of whom gave up their time for free to come along, from as far as north London!
They thwarted the cancelled trains, A27 closure and everything else that was thrown at them to get to Shoreham and give us all a great time.
Sadly, Matthew Black who had been due to perform had to pull out. But hopefully I can get him to the next one!
I want to thank you all for supporting these events.
As the cost of living continues to bite into our pockets, charities are suffering from a reduction in donations, so these little events really do help to make up for some of that loss.
I would especially like to thank those of you that made cakes and other delicious goodies for the cake stand. It raised just over £250 and I have to say, the standard of baking was amazing!
Also for Jane and Ellie who gave their time up on the day to come and run the stall.
If you had one of Ellies' lovely creations, just to let you know, she sells these made to order!
The next fundraiser will most likely be in September or October.
I'm looking forward to it already!